But Why Bethlehem?

Luke 2:15: And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said, one to another, "Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which has come to pass."

And they came with haste. Someone has called that the first Christmas rush, and I think it's probably true. And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a Manger.

That little phrase from the middle of verse 15: "Let us now go even on to Bethlehem."

Gracious Father, teach us from your word. May we receive the Word readily, may we be prepared in heart and mind to hear Your Word, and may the Word generate faith and help us to grow. As we practice the Word. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

It is amazing how an unknown place on the face of the earth can suddenly become very famous because of a famous person.

I must confess to you that one of my worst subjects in school was geography. I think I could have learned to like the subject if I had learned to like the teacher. But he was a difficult man to get along with. He enjoyed popping quizzes at us. He thought that the way to teach geography was to make you memorize how to spell long involved names of places that you'd never see or hear, certainly never visit.

But I confess to you, I didn't even know Plains, Georgia existed until the elections came along and all of a sudden Plains, Georgia is now a whistle stop and a bus stop and everybody wants to run down there and see something.

I seriously doubt that Concord, Massachusetts would have made it into the history books were it not for Emerson and Thoreau.

When we were over in England, we stopped at a little place called Stoke Poges. Now, you wouldn't get off the train or the bus to see Stoke Poges, except for one thing. A man named Gray was in that graveyard one day, and he wrote a famous poem that we had to memorize in high school, Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. Except for Mr. Gray, nobody would pay any attention to Stoke Poges.

The same thing is true of Bethlehem. In our Lord's day, Bethlehem was the city of David and of course everyone knew David. David was the great king who built the monarchy in Israel.

Today we don't think of David. If you were to stop people on the streets in the mid rush of Christmas season and say to them, "When I mention this word, Bethlehem, what do you think of?" They'd say Jesus, not David. Our Lord Jesus Christ has taken a little village which today has about 25,000 inhabitants, much bigger now than it was back in our Lord's Day. Taken this little village and given it worldwide prominence.

Jesus was born there. And tonight, as we conclude our Lord's Day and Christmas Day observance, let's answer the question, why? Why Bethlehem?

Bethlehem is mentioned about 40 times in the Old Testament. That's not a great deal. It's mentioned 8 times in the New Testament. Bethlehem was nothing that the travel agents wrote home about today. It is because people make a pilgrimage there because of Jesus.

But why Bethlehem? Why not Jerusalem? That's where the Magi expected to find him. That's where all the important people should be born. Jerusalem. Or why not Athens, the place of wisdom? Or Rome, the place of power? No, it was Bethlehem, the little town of Bethlehem.

And so we're answering the question tonight. Why would God choose Bethlehem as the place for our Savior's birth?

There may be many reasons, but I think the main reason is because of the associations that are involved in the little town of Bethlehem. Because when you read your Bible, you find that Bethlehem is associated with areas of life that get very close to us.

Now what are these associations?

#1 - Bethlehem Is Associated With the Essentials of Life

Well first of all, Bethlehem is associated with the essentials of life. When you read your Bible and track down Bethlehem, you find that Bethlehem is associated with the essentials of life.

Now what are the essentials of life? I was reading a book some years ago and I found a little paragraph that I haven't been able to forget. In this paragraph it said that a survey was made back in 1900. Now, some of you were around at that time, but back in 1900, a survey was made asking people the question, "How many things do you think you really need to live? That is, to have a comfortable existence?"

And back in 1900, there were 72 different things that were named. They repeated the same survey 50 years later and would you believe that the result was 496 things people needed just to enjoy life.

And yet Jesus said a man's life, a woman's life does not consist in the abundance of the things that we possess. When you go to Bethlehem, you get very close to the necessities of life.

Now what are they? Bread, water.

"Pastor, what are you talking about?" Let's start with Bethlehem. Bethlehem means house of bread. The name actually is Beth-lechem—beth means house, lechem means bread. House of bread.

And it was not an inappropriate name because it was near Bethlehem that Ruth the Moabitess came and she gleaned in the fields, and she gleaned enough bread to feed herself and Naomi her mother-in-law. And ultimately she married Boaz and became the great-grandmother of David. Bread in Bethlehem.

Ruth came to Bethlehem to find bread. And isn't it interesting that Jesus Christ, who centuries later was born in Bethlehem, called himself the bread of life? "I am the bread of life. He that cometh to Me shall never hunger."

You see, there are multitudes of people in this world that are starving to death, not physically, but spiritually. They're hungry. Nicodemus was a hungry man. That's why he came to Jesus that night. The Samaritan woman was hungry. She'd gone from man to man and she was still not satisfied.

The rich young ruler came to Jesus and he was hungry. "What lack I yet?" I've got wealth. I've got respectability. I've got religion. "What lack I yet?" He was still hungry.

And Jesus said, "I am the bread of life." And when you receive Jesus Christ into your heart as your Savior, you have the bread that will satisfy you, the bread from heaven that will feed you from day to day.

The second name is Ephratah. Bethlehem Ephrathah. Now the word Ephrathah simply means fruitful or productive. It refers to the productive soil in that area. And water would flow down from the mountains into the valleys. And because Bethlehem was situated on a fine, fruitful spot, they called it Ephratah, the fruitful place.

Bread and water. The house of bread and the fruitful place where the water flowed to water the crops. Jesus said, "I am the bread of life. I am the water of life. He that believeth on Me, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water."

We had a person come into our pastoral office not too long ago during the week, and she said, "I feel so empty. I feel so dry." And she said, "Life has no meaning anymore." We were able to share the word with her and point her to Jesus Christ. "I am the water of life. If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink."

But what is it all about? All of the commercialism and all of the festivities and all of the activity—it's not bad in and of itself. I guess it takes a lot of activity to remind us that Christmas is here. But when you get right down to the basic essential, it's Jesus Christ, the bread of life and the water of life.

And if you don't have Jesus Christ, you don't have life. You may exist, but you don't have that divine fullness and satisfaction that makes life worth living.

#2 - Bethlehem Is Associated With the Experiences of Life

But Bethlehem is associated with a second great thing, and that is the experiences of life. If you track down Bethlehem in your Bible, you'll find it was the scene of some of the most dramatic experiences.

Bethlehem was the scene of birth. That's where Jesus was born. Bethlehem Ephrathah. But Bethlehem Ephrathah is also mentioned in Genesis 35:16-19 and Genesis 48:7. It's the place where Rachel, Jacob's beloved wife, died.

Jacob loved Rachel. He worked seven years for her and they seemed but a few days because of his love for her. He wanted to marry Rachel, but her father tricked him and gave him Leah. So Jacob worked another seven years and finally married Rachel. And when Rachel died giving birth to Benjamin, Jacob's heart was broken.

She was buried there at Bethlehem Ephrathah. Birth and death.

Bethlehem was also the scene of a beautiful courtship and marriage. The book of Ruth. Ruth came to Bethlehem and she met Boaz and that beautiful love story unfolded. And the writer of the book tells us, "And all the people that were in the gate and the elders said, 'We are witnesses. The Lord make the woman that is come into thine house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel.'"

Romance, the joys of marriage. Birth, sorrow, death, joy, marriage. Bethlehem touches life at every point.

First Samuel 17:12 and 58 associates Bethlehem with the family and with the home because that's where Jesse lived with his family. And 1 Chronicles 11:16-18, one of the most dramatic scenes in the Old Testament, associates Bethlehem with sacrifice and devotion and courage.

David was hiding in a cave. The Philistines had come in and they were in Bethlehem. And David said, "Oh that someone would give me water from the well of Bethlehem." Now he was simply expressing a wish. It was a dangerous thing to do in those days because people took seriously what you said.

Well, three of David's mighty men heard him say that. And they broke through the lines of the Philistines, went to the well of Bethlehem, drew water, brought it back to David. And when David found out what they had risked their lives to do, he wouldn't drink it. He poured it out before the Lord as an offering.

He said, "This is the blood of these men. They risked their lives." Courage, sacrifice, devotion. Bethlehem touches life.

You see, Jesus Christ was not born in a vacuum. He was not born in some kind of a hothouse atmosphere that has nothing to do with real life. Jesus Christ was born into life. And all during his life and ministry, he touched life where we live.

Have you got burdens? So did he. Have you got temptations? So did he. Are you misunderstood? So was he. Are there times when you shed tears? So did he. Are there times when you rejoice? So did he.

Jesus Christ identifies himself with us in every experience of life. "We have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities." Birth, death, joy, sorrow, courage, sacrifice, pain, suffering—Bethlehem, Bethlehem. He was there. And because our Savior experienced these things, he knows how to help us in our experiences.

#3 - Bethlehem Is Associated With the Expectations of Life

There is a third association with Bethlehem. Jesus Christ is associated with the essentials of life. He's associated with the experiences of life. And our Lord Jesus Christ, praise God, is associated with the expectations of life.

Micah 5:2: "But thou Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old from everlasting."

Verse three goes on to say that Israel will go through a time of travail and shall return and God shall stand and feed the people of Israel.

This was written—Micah wrote this little prophecy about Bethlehem when all the hope was gone in the land. The good kings were gone. Ahaz was on the throne. Ahaz was a schemer, a political shrewd wheeler dealer. Ahaz was using wizards and sorcerers to try to control things. Isaiah, the prophet said, "Why don't you call on God?" "No, I won't call on God."

About the time that things were getting pretty dark, idolatry and covetousness and drunkenness and wickedness were covering the land. God gave to Micah a prophecy and he said, "You know, the hope of Israel is going to be in Bethlehem, not Jerusalem, not the throne in Jerusalem, but a stable in Bethlehem."

You see, God always has something for us in the future. All of our expectation is of God. The psalmist said, "My expectation is of the Lord." My expectation is not of the stock market. My expectation is not of the bank book. My expectation is not of my own muscle and strength, says the psalmist.

My expectation is of the Lord. He is God from beginning to end. He is Alpha and Omega. He knows the end from the beginning. And God looked down at Bethlehem and said, "All right, all the hope is there."

"The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight."

There was a bombing in Bethlehem this Christmas season. They were afraid something was going to happen down there. There are tensions. And yet, whether we like it or not, the hope of this world, your hope, the hope of your family, the hope of your body, the hope of your life is wrapped up in what happened in Bethlehem when Jesus Christ was born.

Paul says, "Jesus Christ is our hope." We were without hope. And now in Jesus Christ we have hope. We have hope for the body. "If in this life only we have hope, we are of all men most miserable."

Jesus Christ gives us hope, and therefore we walk into a new year without fear.

I'll not be here to see it, but next Sunday in the Sunday papers, they will list all the predictions. What does Jeane Dixon have to say? What does President Carter have to say? What does the Supreme Court have to say?

Quite frankly, I'm not too worried. I'm interested in one thing. What does God's Word have to say? And God's Word has this to say. If you know Jesus Christ as your Savior and your Lord, you have hope. And hope in the Bible is not hope so. Hope in the Bible is no so. "We know in whom we have believed." We know that He's going to come again because we know him as our Savior.

On Friday, December 22nd, 1865—that's just about one year after this church was founded by Mr. Moody—but on that date, a caravan arrived in Jerusalem, a group of travelers who had come to the Holy Land. Two days later, on Christmas Eve, they traveled down to Bethlehem and stood there in the shepherd's fields at Bethlehem.

A young pastor was in that group. He was 30 years old. And as he stood there, God began to write a poem in his heart, and he wrote it down. He sent it home to his church organist in Boston. That's how Phillips Brooks wrote "O Little Town of Bethlehem."

Our hymn book gives the date of 1868, but his biographers are very sure that he wrote that in 1865. Little difference what year it was written. It was the experience that did it.

Phillips Brooks was a great preacher. He's remembered primarily for this Christmas song. Yet he was a great preacher, a great friend to Mr. D. L. Moody. I think "O Little Town of Bethlehem" best states what we believe as Christians, especially those last two verses.

And though we have already sung the song, that's a dress rehearsal. I'd like us to sing just those last two verses of #121. For Phillips Brooks has written into this song the true meaning of our Lord coming to Bethlehem.

Our Lord Jesus Christ identifies himself with the essentials of life. He's the bread of life. He's the water of life. He identifies himself with us in the experiences of life, birth and death, joy, sorrow. Most of all, he identifies with us in the expectations of life. We're looking forward to our Lord Jesus coming again.